Langkawi, Malaysia

Now, seeing that we would have upwards of 7 weeks in Malaysia we felt an unleashed liberty to stay at Soluna Guesthouse at Pantai Cenang on Langkawi for, what was it, 18 days? Our arrival on Langkawi just happened to coincide with a week long school vacation and a week long air show, the Langkawi International Marine and Aerospace Expedition, better known as LIMA. The island and actually all of Malaysia was extremely busy so decided to stay and wait for the tide to ebb before setting out see more of the country. It was a great decision, as it turned out we really enjoyed our time on the island, the people (lots and lots of them) and the air show. We rented a scooter for two weeks and explored every nook and cranny on the island. We found a few very beautiful beaches with water upwards of 31 degrees C in temperature, and took a couple rides up into the mountains at Gunung Raya, where the cool air felt very refreshing (at times we were not sure our little scooter was going to make it up to the top but at last it did not fail us). Our favourite beach was Pasir Tengkorak Beach on the road to the Datai Resort, it was frequented by a lot of locals and the water was the clearest of all the beaches we saw. The LIMA jet-fighters started their display at 8:30 so their engine noise was our alarm clock (yes, we really are sleeping that late because the warm evenings keep us awake until long after midnight). It still would be a dream of mine to go for a ride in one of those jets...Kimberly maybe you could arrange something??? Anyway, jet-fighters from all over the world were doing maneuvers several times a day directly over our guesthouse. I had a great time taking loads of photos and trying my hand at a few videos, in the end I only kept a few shots so don't be too worried that I will make you sit through hours of home videos. With the air show and vacations over it is time for us to move on, tomorrow it is off the Kuala Lumpur on Malaysian Airlines (we can't believe it $24 for our flight!) then on to Mercing, by bus and the a short jump onto the Tioman Islands by boat. With any luck by tomorrow night we will be sitting in a guesthouse the other side of Malaysia, looking out over the South China Sea.

From the top of Gunung Raya we had a great view of some of the 99 islands of Langkawi.

Pantai Pasir Hiltam, just one of the many beautiful beaches on Langkawi.

We visited the local handcraft centre and watched a the glass blowers made a couple long neck flowers...remember the temperature is over 32 degrees outside, with this fire going it has to be a long hot day. 

We saw more of these cute monkeys  on the road out to the Datai Resort.

It's funny Ken doesn't look the slightest bit nervous with this guy shaveing him with a straight razor.  After the shave he got the best head massage all inclusive for less than $3.

Just behind our guest house the neighbour  lady had a little restuarant set up. Great fried rice and fried noodles, iced coffee and juices.  Ken even managed a little badmonton with the neighbour's husband.

Did  I mention we visited some beautiful beaches?  At Pantai Tanjung Rhu we were just about the only ones there.

Yes, we were just about the only ones there.

Our favourite beach, Pasir Tengkerak, the locals liked to spend the day arelaxing as much as we did.

 The Russian jetfighters preformed manuevers over the Langkawi airstrip.

The Eurofighter was very fast and load...it gave me goosebumps!

Canada's only performer was the Bombardier water bomber.

Which way's up and which way's down?

The view of Langkawi below from the cable car, 700 metres above sea level.

At the top of the cable car , on Gunung Machinchang there were two viewing stations and a skywalk that was unfortuanately closed for renovations.

We also found a great swimming hole that the locals use.  It was so nice and cool in the fresh water, something the water in the Sea of Thailand is not.